The Federal Communications Commission documents referred to above set forth standards for electrical connector receptacles or jacks and mating connector plugs which are to be used in the telecommunications industry in order to achieve standardization of a wide variety of types of equipment used by the industry and used in conjunction with communications equipment. These documents set forth essential dimensions for the jacks and plugs but they leave room for innovation and improvement in the manufacture and performance of the plugs and jacks. A widely used type of jack or receptacle is described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 3,850,497 and a commonly used type of connector plug is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,954,320.
Application Ser. No. 940,536 discloses and claims a connector receptacle which satisfies all of the requirements of the Federal Communications Commission documents and which differs from the receptacle shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,850,497 in that it has one-piece conductors mounted in the housing which have end portions that extend beyond one of the external sidewalls of the housing and which can be inserted into holes in a circuit board and connected to conductors on the circuit board.
Application Ser. No. 967,441 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,193,659 issued Feb. 18, 1980, discloses and claims an improved version of the receptacle shown in the earlier application which permits mounting the receptacle on a circuit board in a manner such that the latching arm of the plug mated with the receptacle is not immediately accessible so that removal of the plug from the receptacle is discouraged. Application Ser. No. 014,442 discloses and claims another improved receptacle which accepts a plug having a latch arm oriented in accordance with the teachings of Application Ser. No. 967,441 and having further improvements, including the provision of a continuous frame around the plug-receiving opening in the mating end or plug-receiving end of the connector housing.
Connector receptacles, as described in the above identified applications, are being favorably received by the electrical and electronics industries and are being adopted on equipment presently being designed. It would be desirable, however, to have available a connector receptacle in accordance with the Federal Communications Commission documents referred to above and which is capable of being mounted on a circuit board with one of the endwalls of the connector housing against one surface of the circuit board. The receptacles shown in the above identified applications and the other receptacles which are presently available to the industry cannot be mounted with one of the endwalls of the housing against a circuit board unless the conductors in the receptacle are connected by soldering or crimping to flexible wires which can then be led to circuit board conductors. The present invention is thus directed to the achievement of a receptacle which has the ends of its conductors extending from one of its endwalls so that it can be mounted with one endwall against a circuit board.
In accordance with the principles of the invention, the receptacle comprises an insulating housing having a plug-receiving end, a rearward end, and a plug-receiving opening extending into the plug-receiving end. The opening has opposed internal sidewalls and a plurality of side-by-side electrical conductors are mounted on the housing and extend into the plug-receiving opening from a location adjacent to one of the internal sidewalls of the opening. The intermediate, or lead, portions of the conductors extend rearwardly from a location adjacent to the plug-receiving opening partially across the external sidewall which is proximate to the one internal sidewall and these lead portions of the conductors are bent laterally through an angle of 90 degrees on the adjacent external sidewall so that their ends extend beyond one of the external endwalls of the housing. The intermediate, or lead, portions of alternative conductors are offset from the planes of the remaining conductors so that the ends of the conductors are arranged on a triangular pattern whereby they can be received in circuit board holes similarly arranged.